r/Bonsai

I just collected this tree from the wild near my parents' garden.

Does it have any potential?

I have no idea about what species it is, do you?

I've been meaning to really focus on one species a bit instead of always looking for new species and after really enjoying working my first Deshojo last season I decided get five new ones for this year to grow each differently as a bit of a study/experiment and to get really focused in on JM care.

These are the 5 trees as I received them, and the 5 directions I decided to try with them.

Tree 1: There wasn't anything super interesting about this one, so it became my candidate to ground grow. I dug a hole, put in a large nursery pot with holes for the roots to escape, and planted the tree in there in my bonsai soil mix. The plan is to just let this one grow in the ground for a couple seasons to try and thicken the trunk as much as I can, and potentially take a bunch of air layers from it to start new trees.

Tree 2: This one I just wanted to put in a larger training pot with a false bottom to try and help with the development of the nebari. Then plan relativity similar in that I just want to let it thicken and develop roots and I will repot on a couple years to work on roots.

Tree 3: This one I gave to my wife to take care of (With my help) to learn on, so they are making all the decisions. I figure helping teach them about how to care for Deshojo would help deepen my knowledge of the species. They picked out a nice oval pot they liked that we had laying around, and added some moss and a figurine for a more "Instant Bonsai" approach.

Tree 4: I wanted to try a cascade maple. I planned this tree on an angle in a cascade pot I had, and used 3mm gauge wire to bend the top down below the rim of the pot. I then went through with lower gauge wire (anchoring to the 3mm wire) to start positioning the branches. I know it's not going to thicken as well in the smaller pot, but once the basic cascade shape is set a bit I might move it back to a training pot in a couple seasons to thicken closer to where I want the end product to be.

Tree 5: I wanted to try some more creative planting techniques, and I found and old birdbath that I wanted to repurpose for bonsai. I drilled holes in the middle for drainage, but was worried about water pooling on the outer rim so decided to wire in some mesh and create a muck wall (mud and sphagnum moss) to attempt an "Island with water around it" look. The pot tests went really well with the walls holding and excess water draining from the bottom still, so I thought I would put my last deshojo in there and moss over the muck walls completely. I am keeping a very close eye on this one as I'm not sure how the unconventional planting will affect how I have to water/care. But as of right now, I am pretty happy with how it looks and am hopeful I could get an interesting result from this one!

Any feedback, comments, or ideas about either the species or any of the trees in particular would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

I really enjoy kurume and girards azalea in general and find they work well as a broom / clump style bonsai. I have a difficult time styling them in an upright style

I received a lot of good advice last year which I heeded. Removed the wires because of biting and left it outdoors year round even in the cold winter. My baby seems to be thriving this Spring.

I’m not sure what style I want long term. Maybe informal upright. The trunk seems to have kept some of its bent shape from wiring.

I’m thinking of repotting it into a larger pot this upcoming dormant season so the roots have more room to grow. Lots of roots are coming out of the holes on the bottom.

Whats happening and what should I do?

critique is always welcome of course. I am still a little conflicted about the right hand side but didn't have too many options.

Or should I wait

OK I blatantly stole a picture from the internet to make my point but... We see a lot of articles about overwintering trees but not many for doing that for trees that require cold and dormancy in hot zones like 9B.

Does anyone have such experience? Like fridges and cooled cold frames?

I think my trees may survive but for keeping a cherry I may be dead in the water.

I’m hoping for the best, it’s got some cool dead wood at the base. Going to let it grow for a few years.

Wondering if you would keep most of these branches as branches and let the trunk thicken up for scale, or chop them all except one and focus on one trunk line.

I’m hooked on this as a hobby…

This Elm was one of the first trees I ever bought as rough nursery stock, and the oldest that is still alive. I almost killed it once and then put it in a big pot with bagged potting soil and mostly forgot about it for almost 4 years. It escaped the pot, rooted hard to the ground, and was more bush than tree.

I originally intended to just free it from the ground and do a repot with minimal root work. But once I started freeing it from the soil I saw just how extreme the situation was. I had to cut three different finger-thick roots running straight down just to flatten the root mass out enough to get it into a better training pot. So I decided to lean in and try to get some nice nebari structure established. There was a big gap on one side but also a nice flare so i draped some long, thick roots over a big chunk of red lava. The tip is just visible. Eventually I'd like to have it standing on exposed roots and leaning on the rock, like a hillside eroded out from under it.

And of course I also reduced the foliage heavily (took a bunch of cuttings). I think there's a good balance to what fine feeder roots I was able to preserve but it's definitely a bit late in the season (USA Zone 9a) for this kind of heavy work. I'll baby it for a month or so but I know I pushed it too hard.

First photos are now, the rest are before and the roots before and after (I wanted to take more pics but my hands were a little full lol)

Hello all, I hope your weekends are going well! My dad has this 10+ year old bougainvillea in his yard that he is planning on removing because he wants to plant something else in that spot. He asked me if I wanted it before he sold/got rid of it, wanted to know what y’all think? Do you guys see any potential with the trunk? This would be the biggest bonsai project I’ve tackled to date but I think it would make for a fun experience. Let me know if you guys think this would bonsai well! Thank you for your time!

Note: first attempt didn’t upload correctly, this is my second attempt, I’m sorry if you’ve already seen this

TL;DR: any potential with this ground grown bougainvillea? 10+ years old

Split the full pruning video into a daily series. One branch support per episode to shape the structure of Lingnan penjing

#bonsai #lingnanbonsai #berchemialineata #bonsaipruning #penjing

Had to pull an azalea out of one of the garden beds so I couldn’t let it go to waste. Thick trunk (that’s a 10” pond basket for scale), funky nebari, and a fun scar. I think there’s some potential here but it’s going to take a few years.

Posted about this a few weeks ago. It was finally nice enough today to start moving the giant pieces of stone that make up the stairs, and it turns out they had an affect on how this thing has grown so far. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it. I'm using a palette to build a grow box for it to sit in for a while before anything else.